64 - FLOWER GIRL DREAMS

FLOWER GIRL DREAMS

21 x 12 inches

(Modeling my sister’s flower girl dress)

While in my sister’s beautiful, white flower-girl dress with a sheer overlay, I posed for a photo next to a lilac bush in front of our tar-papered farm porch. When my oldest sister wore this dress for Aunt Betty’s wedding, I thought she was the luckiest girl ever. When old enough to fit into it, I begged Mom to curl my hair like Shirley Temple and let me pretend to be a flower girl too.

I had abandoned my tomboy ways and was embracing becoming a girlie girl; now the family tradition for girls to be feminine and pretty appealed to me. Having learned patience, I smiled properly for the photo, even though Mom still made me look toward the sun.

Tomboy and flower girl both remain part of my personality. It is the contrast between the two that keeps my life exciting.